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Chironius grandisquamis (PETERS, 1869)

IUCN Red List - Chironius grandisquamis - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Ecuador Sipo 
SynonymSpilotes grandisquamis PETERS 1869: 451
Herpetodryas fuscus — GÜNTHER 1859 (not of LINNAEUS)
Herpetodryas carinatus — COPE 1875 (not of LINNAEUS)
Herpetodryas grandisquamis — COPE 1875
Herpetodryas melas COPE 1886: 278
Herpetodryas melas — BOULENGER 1894: 76
Herpetodryas grandisquamis — BOULENGER 1894: 76
Herpetodryas schlüteri WERNER 1899: 115
Erpetodryas fuscus — FOWLER 1913 (not of LINNAEUS)
Chironius vicinus — AMARAL 1925: 4
Herpetodryas schlüteri — AMARAL 1929
Chironius fuscus — AMARAL 1929 (not of LINNAEUS)
Chironius fuscus grandisquamis — WETTSTEIN 1934
Chironius melas — PRADO 1940
Chironius grandisquamis — TAYLOR 1951: 96
Chironius schlüteri — PETERS 1960
Chironius schlüeteri — PETERS and OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970
Chironius grandisquamis — PETERS & OREJAS-MIRANDA 1970: 60
Chironius schlueteri — FUGLER & WALLS 1978
Chironius grandisquamis — DIXON et al. 1993: 127
Chironius grandisquamis — LEHR 2002: 204
Chironius grandisquamis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 160
Chironius grandisquamis — BERNAL & DUBOIS 2023 
DistributionN Honduras, El Salvador, E Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, NW Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, W Colombia (incl. Valle del Cauca); elevation (Honduras): 120-990 m

Type locality: “Costa Rica”  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: ZMB 3940 (Spilotes grandisquamis PETERS, 1868)
Holotype: USNM 14219 [Herpetodryas melas] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: This is the only Chironius species wilh 10 scale rows at midbody and a divided anal plate.


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CommentRelative abundance in Honduras: infrequent

Distribution: this species has been reported from Peru, but without specific locality (T. Doan, pers. comm. 30 Apr 2012). Map in DIXON et al. 1993: 129.

Synonymy: mostly after DIXON et al. 1993: 127.

Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin grandis (= large, great), squama (= scale), and -is (with, having, nature of), in reference to the unusually large dorsal scales of this snake. 
References
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  • Barrio-Amorós, Cesar Luis, Michelle Quiroz, Cristian Porras-Ramírez, Rene Villanueva-Maldonado, Alejandro Estrada-García, Abel Batista 2023. Amphibians and reptiles encountered during an expedition to Panama. Reptiles & Amphibians 30 (1): e18359 - get paper here
  • Bernal, R. 2025. Serpientes de Colombia-Guía de Campo. Serie de Guías Tropicales de Campo. 19: 396 pp. Conservación Internacional Colombia, Bogotá - get paper here
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  • Boulenger, George A. 1894. Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume II., Containing the Conclusion of the Colubridæ Aglyphæ. British Mus. (Nat. Hist.), London, xi, 382 pp. - get paper here
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